The San Diego State defense came up with two momentum-changing turnovers in the third quarter of Friday night’s 51-44 OT win over Nevada that resulted in Aztecs touchdowns.

But Cody Fajardo and the Wolf Pack offense finally found its rhythm in the fourth quarter and scored three unanswered touchdowns to play themselves back into the game.

“You’ve got to give them credit because they did a great job coming back,” Aztecs coach Rocky Long said. “Their quarterback, I thought we had him sacked four or five times, and he outran the contained guy and got yardage with his feet or found a guy that was open and threw it.

“The quarterback did a great job of getting out of trouble and making plays, especially in the fourth quarter.”

Long said the defense did a good job pressuring Fajardo even though they didn't come away with many sacks.

"We didn't hit him very much, but we were in his face a lot, so he wasn't as comfortable as he normally is," Long said. "But he still threw for a whole bunch of yards and he threw touchdown passes and had a real high percentage completion rate."

Fajardo went 32-of-51 through the air, for 387 yards and two touchdowns. For the second week in a row, the Wolf Pack had two receivers log more than 100 yards each -- Brandon Wimberly (121 yards, 1 TD) and Richy Turner (111 yards, 1 TD).

Fajardo threw for 167 passing yards in the fourth quarter alone, and his late success really set the Aztecs on their heels going into overtime.

Statistically, Nevada’s 564 offensive yards are the most any opponent has racked up against SDSU all year, but the difference this time was that SDSU came up with big defensive plays when it needed them most.

"It's crazy how we don't stop (Fajardo) at all in the fourth and then we go out and we stop them in overtime," Aztecs safety Nat Berhe said. "I think it tells a lot about our defense. I'm just so proud of them and what they've done.

"A lot of people (were) saying the defense isn't as good as last year and stuff like that. So for us to come out and play a good Nevada team and get the win -- kudos to those guys."

Aside from the fourth quarter meltdown, SDSU played fierce defense for most of the game.

The Aztecs missed the injured Jake Fely at middle linebacker, but Josh Gavert did a solid job in fill-in duty, and outside linebacker Derek Largent finally looked like his old pre-knee sprain self.

Largent had the Aztecs’ only sack, and he forced a fumble on the third quarter same play – which Gavert scooped up for a for a 42-yard return.

Gavert led the team with 10 tackles, while Largent was the Aztecs’ second-leading tackler, with nine total tackles. He also led SDSU with 2.5 tackles for loss.

The often-criticized cornerbacks did well too.

Damontae Kazee forced the second fumble with a huge hit on Fajardo, and he almost picked off Fajardo in the fourth quarter, right after the Aztecs had jumped ahead 44-23.